New Orleans floods. People adapt to the flooding, prepare for it, resist it and
endure it. Initially the main threat was the river,
and the floods came almost every year. In time people found ways to resist the river.
It took 200 years, but by 1930 the Corps had a
working solution to river flooding. Levees, spillways and dredging
offer enough options to keep the river out of the city. The threat is
not gone. In 1997 and again in 2011, when near Project Floods filled the river to within a few feet of the top of the levee and river traffic had to be restricted, there was still enough control in the system that nothing got flooded. We'll be able to control the river as long as we are vigilant or until we make a mistake and then there will be hell to pay.
The controls
we put in place changed the natural balance.
More people moved into to lower lying areas, and without regular flooding the landscape is changing. The marsh is dying and the earth is settling. Now the sea and sometimes the sky are threats, but the river is still there and we can never forget the river.
Nova records the struggle